Published: June 21, 2009 09:45 pm      

Another pizza choice coming

Papa John’s returns to Orange after five years

ORANGE — The pizza businesses in Orange are about to get a shot of new competition by the end of August.

Papa John’s is aiming for a late August return to Orange after closing the doors to its previous store in 2003. The new store is currently under construction and will be located in the 2300 block of MacArthur Drive, next to Payless.

Judy Nichols, along with her husband Mike, have been in the pizza business for approximately 30 years, including 15 years in Southeast Texas. She said it broke her heart when she had close the store in Orange in 2003.

“We are so thrilled to be coming back to Orange,” Nichols said. “We ended up closing in 2003 when the circle was being taken out of MacArthur Drive. We lost our driveway for two years and 75 percent of our business with it. We just couldn’t operate that way.”

Nichols said she is anticipating opening the new location by the end of August, but it could be sooner depending on construction and other issues. Once the store opens, she expects Papa John’s to make a big impact.

“We will have new technology in this store to make everything more efficient,” Nichols continued. “And we will have new ovens which bake the pizzas two minutes faster than before. That will help us with our deliveries.”

According to Nichols, health regulations require the pizzas to be delivered at a specific temperature for safety concerns. The new ovens will help Papa John’s achieve that goal, which will allow the Orange location to have an expanded delivery areas.

“We will cover all of Bridge City and Orangefield with our delivery service,” Nichols added. “To Bessie Heights and in between. We will be able to go all the way up (FM) 1442 to the Interstate.”

Nichols said she had to obtain a “variance” to the contract she had originally signed with corporate officials at Papa John’s because of Hurricane Ike-related issues.

She said the store was originally slated to open in December 2008, but damage to the site selected for construction, as well as the surrounding communities, led to a one-year extension of the contract with the corporate office.

Nichols, who currently operates the stores in Beaumont and Mid-County, understood all too well what people in Orange County were going through with Hurricane Ike repairs, so she decided to temporarily halt construction following the storm.

“We held off on construction for a couple of reasons,” she said. “We didn’t want to tie up some construction workers doing our business when they could be out helping repair someone’s home. Plus, we have people who had houses they needed to work on too.”

Doug Hedin, who is currently the supervisor of Nichols three stores, is also a previous store owner in Pittsburgh, Pa. He said the main construction problem once work resumed was the re-evaluation of the slab.

“We had to determine what height it needed to be for the new store, following the storm,” Hedin said. “Once we were able to deal with that, construction has really moved along.”

Nichols said leaving Orange was one of the hardest decisions she has ever made, but she always knew she would be back one day.

“Orange was always good to us,” Nichols added. “We can’t wait to open the new store and start serving Orange and the surrounding areas again. It’s been too long.”



Tommy Mann Jr. is a reporter for The Orange Leader. He can be reached at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2619 or tmann@orangeleader.com